Good morning! Pantyhose brand L’eggs rebrands, the Women's Pro Baseball League will launch in 2026, and a 50-year anniversary offers the chance to reflect ahead of a historic election. Have a great Thursday.
- Credit report. Less than a week before voters head to the polls and have the chance to elect Kamala Harris as the United States' first female president, there's a milestone that shows how radical that achievement would truly be.
This week marks the 50th anniversary of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the legislation that for the first time made it illegal for banks to require women to have a male cosigner to receive a credit card, loan, or mortgage. Before this legislation was signed into law five decades ago this week, not only couldn't women access credit—but the credit history went to the male cosigner, meaning that if a woman divorced, she would be starting from scratch with no credit history. This inequality persisted for more than a decade after the Equal Pay Act of 1963.
NPR interviewed Emily Card, who remembers being turned down for a credit card and told her husband could apply instead. Card made more money than her husband, yet was still rejected; she also worked for a GOP senator, who later helped pass the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.
Tory Burch, the fashion designer, wrote an op-ed for Time recalling her own experience. She remembers when her mom proudly came home with her first credit card in her own name in 1974. "I often think about the effects of constantly seeing someone else’s name where yours should be—the small, daily reminder that your life, your decisions, your destiny are being dictated by someone else," Burch writes. That's an experience Harris would be of the right generation to remember, too; she would have been about 10 years old when this legislation was signed into law.
With tensions rising ahead of an uncertain election, it's easy to get wrapped up in predictions and worries. This fortuitously timed anniversary gives us the opportunity to reflect on how far we've come—even if, in 1974 and 2024, these milestones were both long overdue.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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